Tiger Woods PGA 2003

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A batch of Xbox movies shows off the various shots in the game.

By Aaron Boulding

After a few rounds of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003, you'll probably still need work on your short game, but at least your videogaming skills will be sharpened up a bit. EA's PGA franchise is soon making its way to PC with a boatload of features that should give casual fans plenty to do right off the bat, while providing plenty of wonderful stress and challenges for serious golf fans.

We're going to take this time to introduce you to some of the gameplay mechanics by way of a few quicktime movies taken from the Xbox version. This installment will focus on the sim elements of Tiger Woods 2003 so these clips are going to focus on driving, putting and approach shots. Remember just because we're playing as Tiger Woods doesn't mean you don't need any skills. You'll be ready to shoot birds and eagles like a hunter by the time you're done here.

Tiger Woods, we call him E, is the main man responsible for changing the sport thanks to his amazing work off the tees. Woods has no problem launching 300 yard drives either in real life or in this videogame. All it takes is a nice fluid motion on your gamepad's analog stick and some rapid fire tapping on the power button during the backswing. The idea is that you're building up power until your swing reaches its apex and then your releasing it on the downswing and follow-through. The little golf ball indicator in the lower right hand corner fills with red energy as you tap the power button, so you want the entire ball red before you reach the top of your swing. Tiger doesn't get all of this one but he still gets 300.

Any golfer or belligerent blabbermouth at the 19th hole will tell you that, your iron shots are where you make your money in golf. That's why there's so many of them. The swing mechanic for driving and iron shots are exactly the same so in addition to the power button tapping you also have control over the fade and draw of the shot. Weekend warriors may recognize the fade and draw as the friendly, more helpful versions of the evil twins, hook and the slice. In Tiger Woods 2003, you but movement on the ball the proper way, but adjusting the openness of the club face during your swing. So moving the swing indicator slightly to the left or right as you draw the club back during your swing is how you'll put a little sidespin on the ball. It's a subtle thing, but there are shots in the game that will require you to get crafty.

The shot that puts the ball in the cup is always the most important. Setting up a nice putt is the reason for all of those powerful drives and pretty approach shots. In Tiger Woods 2003, they give you the line that helps you read the green on the default difficulty setting. As much as this helps you still have to aim and put the right amount of power behind the shot to sink it. The blue arrow indicator is where the ball will stop if you put full power on it but it doesn't take the roll of the green into account. These movies show off how you have to aim beyond the cup and to the left or right if you want to sink those birdies.